Since you used a solid piece of wood, warping is a distinct
possibility. One way to reduce this, is to add small "angle Iron"
pieces to the back of the dash board. Go across the grain because this
the direction of the warping. I've seem some beautiful walnut and
hardwood custom dash boards that looked fantastic, until they warped,
cracked and split. This is why Normally, a high grade of Marine
exterior plywood is used with a thin vaneer (sp) of the exotic wood
covering the plywood attached by a high grade Marine adhesive. Since
these LBC's sit out side, and even sometimes get wet on the inside, the
Marine materials are, imo, the best way to go durability, and longevity.
The solid dash may look slightly better in the beginning, but it will be
dam difficult to keep it that way. Good luck. Personally, while you
have all of the jigs already set up, I would build a second one out of
the Marine materials. This way, you have a backup unit for quick
replacement, should the warping ruin the solid one you just made.
Rich
> ----------
> From: Steve Van Ronk[SMTP:glblitnpwr@nidlink.com]
> Reply To: Steve Van Ronk
> Sent: Sunday, June 01, 1997 11:58 AM
> To: alpines@autox.team.net
> Subject: "New" Series V - week 7 (Dash)
>
> Greetings Folks,
>
> With all that Dash talk, I figured it was about time to give my latest
> progress report. After the great concentrated effort starting my
> restoration project, I now find myself in the "it takes how long it
> takes" phase. At last report, I had finished the interior prep,
> carpet
> installation, and new upholstery and was trying to get the right door
> window winder working. Those of you who followed my progress may
> remember that I too wanted to replace the old plastic-covered dash.
> After checking out the availability of wood-grained dash (Classic
> Sunbeam $345, <CLASSICSUN@AOL.COM>) and other options, I decided on
> building my own out of a solid piece of hardwood.
>
> Two weeks ago we had our annual hot rod and classic car show here in
> Sandpoint, Idaho and two Tigers showed up. One had the wood-grained
> dash from CS and it did look pretty good. Personally, I remain quite
> pleased with my decision to make my own, although it is a lot of work
> and requires some fairly good woodworking skills. I am using a piece
> of
> African Bloodwood, deep scarlet red in color with a nice grain
> pattern.
> The stock is 3/4" thick, which is quite a bit thicker than the
> original,
> thus requires some router work on the back side to fit the gages and
> switches. Another option would be to plane the whole plank down, but
> I
> decided against that just to maintain more strength in the dash. I
> used
> the old plastic dash as a pattern for the hole locations, then flipped
> it over to repeat the shape on the glove box side. This will give me
> a
> glove box door cut out of the panel as well. After tracing the
> pattern
> to the wood, I used a power jig saw to carefully cut the shape.
>
> Second step was to get the alignment of all the holes. After marking
> the templates, I used calipers to double check the dimentions and make
> sure the hole centers were all aligned correctly. You immediatly
> notice
> that the holes are not all in a straight line due to the curvature of
> the dash, so the must be aligned in a few distince "blocks". to get
> the
> centers of the larger gage holes, I traced the hole through the
> original
> dash pattern then located the exact center geometrically by using two
> chords of the traced circle, subdividing the chords, then running
> perpendicular lines to the chord to get their intersection at the
> exact
> center of the holes.
>
> Third step was to drill all the small holes for mounting to the car
> body
> and to attach the lower upholstered frame and the switch holes up to
> 5/8" diameter. These are easy because they are standard drill bits.
> Next comes the bigger holes which require hole cutting bits up to 4".
> I
> cut throuth the back side of the dash until the pilot bit came out the
> front side, then turned it over to drill out the rest of the way.
> This
> is to prevent splintering of the front side of the dash. All holes
> should be drilled on a drill press to guarantee precision and
> alignment.
>
> With all the holes drilled, next comes routing out the back side of
> the
> dash to get proper thickness for gages and switches. Also during this
> phase the heater and blower controls can be made. The bigger gage
> holes
> are easy. You simply use a router bit with a guide bearing on the
> lower
> tip and set it to the thickness determined by calipers on the old
> plastic dash. Then rout a thin indentation just enough for the gage
> mount bracket to slip into. The switches are a little more trick, but
> not too bad. Since the body of the switch must also be recessed, you
> must rout a slot in the back that crosses the whole block of switch
> holes and spreads out enough to easily set each switch. Then the most
> trickey part is the heater controls. These need slots that go clear
> through the front of the dash. The best way not to lose control of
> your
> router is to set up a temporary jig over the dash that prevents the
> router from going beyond the hole.
>
> Finally, cutting the glove box hole. This is done with the jig saw
> and
> preferrably a jig. The glove box door will be the piece you cut out
> of
> the dash, so this job must be done VERY carefully. Probably the most
> delicate part of the project since there is not trim strip and your
> accuracy will determine what you get. Cut the door out with the jig
> saw
> blade slightly angled so the door will open easily and seat well.
>
> Then you brush it off, step back, and VOILA! A nice pretty new exotic
> custom dashboard! To finish it off you can either lacquer it or oil
> and
> beeswax. DO NOT use polyurethane varnish because those are not too
> good
> for UV resistance.
>
> Conclusion - Building your own dash is a very nice woodworking project
> and adds a touch of class to your car that can not be obtained any
> other
> way, but it is not for everybody. It requires either a good full day
> of
> work in a fairly well equipped wood shop, or several days of spare
> time
> in a good shop, or a lot of tedious careful hand work in a poorly
> equipped shop. If you like wood work and have the tools, the job is
> fun
> and very rewarding. If you want a wood-grained dash but do not want
> to
> build your own, the ones from CS are nice and I certainly would not
> build one for someone else for less than they charge. The
> commercially
> available dashes are usually marine plywood with a hardwood vaneer. I
> am very happy with my new custom dash, which is not yet in, but
> everything fits. The last part to fabricate before reinstalling all
> the
> pieces is the brackets to mount the heater controls. These are
> mounted
> on the old one from plastic nubs that stick out the back side. On the
> new one, mounting brackest must be fashioned to screw onto the
> backside.
>
> Now that I am well into the rebuild part of the whole restoration, I
> don't even mind the slower pace that at first. That is the key to an
> enjoyable project - enjoy the process!
>
> May you all enjoy your projects as much as I am mine.
>
> Best wishes,
> Steve Van Ronk
> <glblitnpwr@nidlink.com>
>
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